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CompuLab, an Israeli maker of embedded computing products, has announced a tiny barebones computer called the Utilite that will retail for £65 ($99) upwards.

It’s just 5.3 inches by 3.9 inches by 0.8 inches, which means it is just slightly larger than a pack of 100 index cards. Yet inside it has a powerful Freescale iMX6 system-on-a-chip, with an ARM Cortex A9 processor at its heart, with one, two, or four cores. The device can have up to 4GB of RAM and can contain a hard drive with up to 512GB plus a microSD card with up to 128GB of storage.

At the moment there are no clear-cut pricing models, though the minimum configuration will cost around £70 ($99) and will support Linux or Android.

CompuLab has packed a lot of I/O capabilities into a tiny, elegant-looking box, including two Gigabit Ethernet ports, Bluetooth 3.0, Wi-Fi b/g/n, four USB 2.0 ports, stereo line-in and line-out, and HDMI and DVI-D ports for your display. Its draws just 3 watts to 8 watts of power.

The device is everything you’d need in a desktop computer in a space about one third the size of its keyboard and has the capability to be expanded and 'beefed' up in the future.

For the promised price, however, you could buy four Raspberry Pi computers - but you'll be the short fall of a case whilst with the Utilite you’re paying for the packaging, getting a case (yay!).

It is a promising product so far and it looks like it could be a very economical solution and a convenient way to have the computing power required anywhere you may need one - potentially seeing more computerised gadgets around the home.

What are your thoughts - would this be something you'd want to check out? You can get in touch with us by mentioning #ALJTMedia on Twitter, leaving a comment on our Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn page, or writing a comment below.

About the Author

From the small, to the large, Lewis has tackled and developed a vast selection of projects since he started developing over 8 years ago. Lewis has the ability to program in over 25 languages from the well-known; PHP, Java, C and Objective-C to the less well-known; RDFa, Sparql and Maude. For any queries regarding the realisation and development of your project, Lewis will be your primary contact. Outside of work, Lewis has a passion for films, music and he’s also a bit of a Disney geek.